Ripple also built a sample ILP client for developers, along with supporting instructional documentation. A good overview of Interledger development documentation can be found here. Complete documentation about developing for Ripple platform is here.

Ripple proved that DLT can be used to solve a real-world problem of cross-border payments. It’s one of the few companies that managed to acquire a BitLicense — a virtual currency license — from the New York State Department of Financial Services.

Here is a list of Ripple’s FI clients, which are either utilizing the tech in production, or testing it for cross-border money movement:

Image Credit: Ripple.com

Enterprise Ethereum

Enterprise Ethereum is the new kid on the Enterprise Blockchain Consortium block; however, ethereum as a platform has a robust base of credentials. Enterprises have shown significant interest in the platform, and many innovation labs have been testing a private deployment of Ethereum.

Jeremey Millar from ConsenSys elegantly presents the merits of using Ethereum in an enterprise setting:

Ethereum is arguably, the most commonly used blockchain technology for enterprise development today. With more than 20,000 developers globally, the benefits of a public chain holding roughly $1 billion of value, and an emerging open source ecosystem of development tools, it is little wonder that Accenture observed ‘every self-respecting innovation lab is running and experimenting with Ethereum.’ Cloud vendors are also supporting Ethereum as a first class citizen: Alibaba Cloud, Microsoft Azure, RedHat OpenShift, Pivotal CloudFoundry all feature Ethereum as one of their, if not the primary blockchain offering.

Enterprise Ethereum (EE) brings forth a very crucial debate (and a differentiator) about the technology used in this space – blockchain vs distributed ledger. While these two technologies have been interchangeably used by many in the field, there is a subtle difference that catches folks off-guard. Antony Lewis of R3 says:

All blockchains are distributed ledgers, but not all distributed ledgers are blockchains!

Enterprise Ethereum attempts to bring the technology behind Ethereum into enterprises, while other players have redesigned the idea behind blockchains to fit the enterprise needs. It is still early in the game to see how EE will evolve, as not much details have been published except for the launch day webcast (seven hours). Around the first hour, Vitalik Buterin talks about the Ethereum roadmap.

EE launched with a significant number of important players in the space – most notably JPMorgan Chase, which has also announced the launch of its own ethereum-based blockchain called Quorum.

Image Credit: http://entethalliance.org/

Conclusion:

The Enterprise Blockchain/Distributed Ledger space is becoming competitive, with a solid number of offerings. There are other players, like Multichain and Monax, which I have not covered here, but which deserve a close watch.

Just like relational databases reshaped the way enterprise applications are built today, blockchains and distributed ledgers will shape the way enterprise applications are designed in the future.

Deva Annamalai is a technologist at heart who brings an unique business value proposition with his diversified experience in various vertical industries that include Banking, Finance, Mortgage, Healthcare, B2B marketplaces and Logistics. Currently Deva works as Director of Marketing Technology and Innovation for Fiserv. He is also responsible for managing the INV Fintech startup accelerator program in partnership with Bank Innovation and various Financial Institutions.

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